Hi,
I have a list of colleges that are appealing to me and I’d like some recommendations about which one is best for me, other possible colleges that would be a good idea to look into, and ones I should remove.
What I need: great financial aid, geosciences program (particularly geology and geography)
What I want: hopefully pretty small (under 5,000) or medium, focus on sustainability, outdoorsy, no big religious affiliation. I would also like a school that has many study abroad options. Beautiful location would be preferred. Warmer weather for part of the year would be nice. Preferable for a school to take community college credits, I will have about 60. Location: either in US, Canada, or not super expensive foreign country. I’m in Seattle and it’d be nice to have a school not super far away. I also would like there to be a girls soccer program and choir.
My stats:
3.1 unweighted GPA, probably up to 3.4 or 3.5 by the time I apply to most.
Weighted GPA higher due to honors and AP classes.
I do running start
1990 SAT, 660 Reading 620 Writing 690 Math (I’m retaking it and also taking the ACT as well).
my current college list:
Northland College*
College of the Atlantic*
Green Mountain College
Western Washington University*
Middlebury College
UC Berkeley
Lewis & Clark
Humboldt
U of Miami
Vassar
Warren Wilson
Oberlin
University of Puget Sound
If you have or know anyone who has gone to any of these colleges please tell me what they thought of the school!
- means a college I like the most so far
You will not get any financial aid at Berkeley as an out of state student, so take it off your list. Your GPA and test scores are low for Oberlin & Middlebury.
Run the net price calculator on each school on your list, You can find it on the financial aid page of the college website. You will need your parents to help, but it will give you a good idea of the cost to attend. If your parents are divorced, own a small business, or have rental property, it isn’t as accurate (you will probably pay more than it shows). You have several schools on your list that do not meet need, so this is important to do now.
You don’t say, but are you a junior or senior in high school? Will all those cc credits be earned before you graduate? Also, you would have to research, but I would be surprised if Oberlin, Middlebury, or Vassar will take all those credits. But you will have to check on each one.
Thank you @intparent ! I am a high school senior and I have completed 30 cc credits, will have 40 when I apply, and will have 60 when I graduate.
Any cc credits taken after your high school graduation date could make you a transfer applicant instead of a freshman. You are then in a different applicant pool, not eligible for freshman scholarships, and may get worse financial aid.
Thank you I know about that, if I decide to take any more cc classes after my graduation, which I probably won’t, I’ll get my associates before transferring to a college so I only have 2 years left for a bachelors degree.
Agree with @intparent: Your stats are no where high enough for UCB along with little to no financial aid available as an OOS student. You are looking at around $55K/year. Also UCB is far from a small to medium size school with a student population over 37,000. I am not familiar with the rest of the schools on your list.
How about Dickinson college in PA?
My daughter is applying to some of the same schools that are on your list (COA, Oberlin, Vassar, and Warren Wilson). We visited COA and loved it. But it’s not for everyone. They don’t have sports teams, I suppose you know that. It’s very beautiful there, but not warm. The school is VERY small. Are you in a position to be recruited for sports? If not, I’d say your chances of acceptance at Vassar or Middlebury or UC Berkley are almost nil. Vassar and Middlebury only give need based aid and will not accept your CC credits. Warren Wilson might be a really good fit for you. We haven’t visited there yet, but have heard great things about the school. A student I spoke to there was on the women’s soccer team and loved it! My daughter is applying non-binding Early Action to Warren Wilson. I don’t know about their rocks department, but they have a interesting looking environmental science track. Best of luck to you.
Frankly your GPA and scores are low for good merit aid. In addition to your list I would look at Willamette.
There is a small school in Worcester, Mass named Clark University that has about 2000 undergrads and about 1000 grad students (mostly pursuing masters degrees) which has the oldest (and arguably one of the top) Geography Phd Programs in the country. It has strong programs in both Geography and Environmental Science. They actually
created and still produce one of the leading GIS software packages.
They have an active outdoors club, a D3 women’s soccer team, and a choir.
It is located in a small city that would probably not qualify as “beautiful”.
They give merit aid, but I don’t know if your stats are high enough.
http://www.clarku.edu/departments/geography/about/nrcrankings.cf
http://www.clarku.edu/gis/
http://web.clarku.edu/students/outingclub/index.html
Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL. is small, offers BS in geoscience and BS in marine geology. It is a DIII in girls soccer, has a choir and offers generous merit and financial aid. They have the largest number of NOAA Hollings Scholars in the US. They operate on a 4-1-4 schedule. Opportunities to study abroad for a semester, for Jan. winter term, for spring into summer session, for the summer or for a spring break service trip. You would have to contact the admission’s counselor or registrars office in each college to see what their policy is about accepting CC credits. Some will accept up to a certain number of credits without being considered a transfer student.